


Make Me Listen

by RobinPlaysTrumpet15



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Episode: s07e03 On the Wings of Keeradaks, Gen, Light Angst, Panic Attacks, description of echo, post episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:27:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24075937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobinPlaysTrumpet15/pseuds/RobinPlaysTrumpet15
Summary: Cody didn't listen to Rex. He's proven wrong.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 142





	Make Me Listen

**Author's Note:**

> **Trigger Warning:** panic attacks, descriptions of a POW (Echo)

Kix had done just about everything he possibly could to keep Cody in the med center. The 212th commander had already been in a bacta tank by the time the rest of the scouting party with the Bad Batch returned to the base. Once Kix was on site, however, Cody became _his_ patient. Blackberry wasn’t around at the time to be the one taking care of him, so Kix would do it.

Of course, Cody had healed quickly and was removed from the tank for a physical. After that, Kix confined him to a bed for at least twenty four hours and most certainly would _not_ allow him access to his datapad so he could do paperwork. General Kenobi had arrived, and though he was busy, the few forms and documents were nothing he couldn’t handle.

After that, Kix just kept finding excuses to keep him another hour or two. Partially because the man needed the rest and partially because it was almost amusing to watch him squirm a bit. Cody wasn’t used to being confined to one space, or forced to relax and be still. He liked to be up and moving; checking on the men, speaking with the QM, roundhouse kicking droids - anything that wasn’t sitting around.

Kix was perfectly happy to take this away from him for a little while.

Of course, then they’d gotten a fresh wave of wounded men from the front lines and their med center had needed every bed it could get. Cody was all too happy to give up his own to an injured brother.

Kix reluctantly cleared him, but still watched the commander wince as he turned to leave. Cody was healed, there was no doubt about that, but he’d pulled some muscles and they were clearly still bothering him.

The next call he’d gotten was from Rex, not too long after.

They’d need another bed. And a hell of a lot of other things, too. Kix was informed that while he would be working on this specific case as well, the lead medic would be Carter. Carter had been trained as a legitimate surgeon and he would be working closely with General Skywalker. Something about new prostheses. Exactly the sort of thing Kix _hadn’t_ been trained for.

So he worked with his men and met with the medical team and waited anxiously for the return of his brothers.

*

Cody was relieved to finally get out of the medical center. He understood what Kix was getting at, really. Yes, Cody needed to rest. Yes, he had been injured. (It had hurt like a _bitch_.) And yes, he was still sore. But that was just how life was nowadays. Everything hurt a little, no matter what it was or where it was or what he was doing or who he was talking to. It all just hurt a bit.

You learned to live with it.

Cody all but sprinted back to his own tent, eager to get out of these medical clothes and back into his armor. He hated spending so much time out of it. Though he had to admit that the cot was much more comfortable when he wasn’t wearing armor.

Halfway through pulling a clean set of blacks on, his comlink chirped at him. He decided to leave it until he was finished, then he could look into whatever it was he was needed for.

Turned out it was a message from Rex. He would be returning shortly and wanted Cody to meet them on the landing strip.

Cody smiled at the message, secure in the privacy of his tent. Thank the stars, his little brother was okay. He didn’t honestly know what he would do without Rex if something happened to him. This war had already taken too much, and this was something he refused to let go of. If he had anything to say about it, he’d never have to.

It was why Rex talking about Echo being alive scared him so much. It was why the thing with Fives scared him. He’d never consider his brother crazy by any means, but something had gone down with Fives, and it had gotten him killed. If Rex started down a path of chasing ghosts… Cody worried about where that might lead them all.

General Kenobi was already on the landing strip when Cody got there.

“Ah, Cody,” the Jedi greeted with a warm smile. “Kix finally released you from medical, I see.”

Cody returned the greeting with an easy, confident smirk.

“Only because he had to,” he quipped. “Too many men came in at one time and he couldn’t justify keeping me anymore.”

Kenobi’s chuckle was both genuine and a touch sad. Kix’s hand being forced was amusing, but the state of the men certainly was not.

Cody didn’t like the way it seemed to weigh on his general.

“Did Rex tell you how the mission went?” Obi-Wan asked then, seeming to shake off the momentary dark cloud.

Cody frowned slightly, shaking his head.

“No, just that he wanted me here when they got back.”

Had something gone wrong? Was Rex hiding something?

“It went very well,” the general supplied easily. “They didn’t lose anyone and even managed to wreak some havoc for the Techno Union.”

Cody was relieved to hear that, but his frown stayed firmly in place. That sounded a little bit like there was something else General Kenobi wasn’t telling him.

The alert of an incoming ship went out across the landing strip, signalling to clear the designated area. Men moved quickly to get out of the way. Clearly, they knew it was the Bad Batch coming in, and everyone had seen their first landing. Fast and dangerous, just the way they preferred to operate.

“That’s good,” Cody responded absently, watching the ship approach. Apprehension built in his stomach. Something had happened, he was sure of it.

Kenobi nodded, his eyes also on the incoming ship.

“And there’s one other thing,” the man told him, raising his voice just slightly as the ship came in to land. It whipped up the air around them, the engines forcing the Jedi to speak up if he wanted to be heard.

“They’re coming back with another person.”

Cody’s heart stopped.

His eyes went wide in shock, quickly flickering to his general and then back to ship.

No-

No, it- it couldn’t be.

There were so many _other_ explanations. There _were_.

Perhaps they’d made a friend, recruited an ally, hells- even taken a _prisoner_.

Any of those scenarios were infinitely more likely to be true than his immediate thought. _Anything_ was more likely than Rex having been _right_ -

The ship landed as his mind raced through the possibilities. It took a moment, but then the doors were opening and General Skywalker was leading Hunter and the others off the ship.

Skywalker approached his former master with a confident smile. The two embraced briefly, speaking to one another.

Hunter came up to Cody first.

The commander didn’t even know what to say, or what to ask. He just stood there, silently, staring at his friend. Not a single word came to mind.

“Commander?” Hunter prompted. “You alright?”

Cody cursed, mentally shaking himself.

_Get a_ grip _, Kote. No time to shut down like this._

“I-I’m fine, Sergeant. Thank you. How was the mission?”

Hunter did not look even _remotely_ convinced by that answer, but he let it go after a moment.

“Good. Not exactly according to plan, but-” He smirked. “-what else is new?”

Cody returned the look good naturedly.

“Hunter, the day one of your missions goes exactly according to plan is the day the _Kaminiise_ stop referring to us as products.”

Hunter grinned at him, the expression wide and predatory. Cody knew that if his general had heard him say that, he would have gotten that sad, pained look in his eyes. But hey, it wasn’t funny but sometimes all you could do was laugh. If you couldn’t do that, you’d never make it.

Cody finally mustered the courage to look away from the tattooed man in front of him.

Crosshair, Tech, and Wrecker had left the ship as well, seemingly arguing amongst themselves about something. Skywalker had left with General Kenobi.

He did not see Rex.

“Where’s-”

“He’s still on the ship,” Hunter offered, not waiting for the rest of Cody’s question. “We’re not moving him yet until the medical team gets here.”

Cody started, turning his eyes on Hunter again. He hoped the fear suddenly tightening his chest wasn’t too obvious.

“What?” he asked. “You and General Kenobi said the mission went well. What happened to him?”

Hunter’s expression pinched slightly. His eyebrows furrowed, pulling down lower over his eyes.

“Wat Tambor,” the Bad Batch sergeant explained. “He did some… awful things.” Hunter shook his head, clearly pushing away whatever horrible images were filtering through his mind.

“So you left him alone on the ship?” Cody demanded.

Hunter reeled back, clearly confused.

“He’s not alone.”

“But you just said-” Cody bit off the thought, taking a short, harsh breath. He was confused now, too.

“Hang on, wait. Who are you talking about?” he asked.

“Who are _you_ talking about?” Hunter repeated at him.

“Rex!”

“I’m talking about Echo.”

Cody’s entire world stopped.

Echo? Their Echo?

The one Rex had marked with eel blood at the Rishi station almost two and a half years ago? The one attached at the hip to Fives? Who used to quote reg manuals? The Echo who proved himself worthy of ARC trooper training and went on to become one of the most elite soldiers in the 501st Legion?

That was impossible.

Wasn’t it?

“Our Echo?” he asked absently, feeling himself go almost numb with shock.

A medical team hurried past them suddenly, Kix and Carter leading the way with a stretcher between them. Jesse appeared at Cody’s shoulder, watching with wide eyes.

“Let’s go boys!” he heard Carter call to his team. “Gentle but fast, no rough hands on this one.”

Cody watched the open hatch of the ship with wide eyes, waiting with baited breath. It felt like an eternity before something happened.

Then Rex appeared at the top of the stairs, a skinny, pale mass of- of _someone_ in his arms. There were wires everywhere, and metal bits stuck on and in flesh pulled taught across bones and barely-there muscle. Cody couldn’t see much for the gray blanket wrapped around the person’s body.

The blond captain descended the stairs smoothly, handing off his bundle to Kix and Carter who settled him easily onto the stretcher. The medics moved quickly back towards the medical center, beginning to check over their skin-and-bones charge.

As they passed him, his eyes landed on the face of Rex’s bundle.

It was a brother. He was oddly, sickly pale. His face was gaunt, his eyes sunken and cheeks hollow. He was completely bald with no stubble on his chin, but there were little circular metal ports running along the sides of his head.

None of that mattered. It didn’t matter that he was unrecognizable. It didn’t matter that he looked sick and nearly dead already. Cody knew it was him. He _knew_.

“Echo,” he heard himself whisper.

Slowly, the world filtered back in, grinding into movement again.

Hunter was still at his side, watching him with worried brown eyes.

“Commander?”

A hand touched gently at his elbow.

“Cody?”

Marshal Commander Cody had been through a lot of things. He was the second in command to Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi. The commander of the 212th Attack Battalion of the 7th Sky Corps in the 3rd Systems Army of the Grand Army of the Republic. He had lived through countless battles and skirmishes. He helped to keep his Jedi alive and did everything he could to keep his _vode_ alive. And at night, before he could lay down to sleep, he said his remembrances. He had a list of names on his datapad just so he wouldn’t forget all of them. There were too many to count.

And in that moment, he felt like little more than a cadet, facing the harsh reality of life as a clone for the first time. It was like watching his batchmate be dragged away from them at four years old, never to see him again.

For the first time in years, Cody began to cry.

His breath hitched, dragging a choked little sound out of him. Tears welled in his eyes and fell down his cheeks before he even had time to register the world around him going blurry. If not for the hands suddenly on him, he surely would have collapsed to the ground.

Rex had been _right_. He’d been right he was right hewasright _hewasright_ -

Echo was alive. He must have survived the explosion and they’d just _left him there_. A good soldier _never_ left a man behind. _Never_. And they’d left Echo there.

Stars only knew what hells he’d been through since that, in the year he’d been “dead”. Considered KIA. Killed In Action.

Cody couldn’t breathe. He sucked in air between gasps and sobs, but it wasn’t enough. His lungs were full of cotton and he couldn’t fill them. Everything hurt. It all hurt. His chest, his lungs, his heart, his throat, his _head_.

_Get a grip, Kote._

He couldn’t breathe.

_Get ahold of yourself!_

Everything was too loud.

_Knock it off!_

He couldn’t think.

_Snap out of it!_

It _hurt_.

Something cold settled on his face. It soothed the sharp pain in his forehead, smoothing away the blinding fear and clearing his lungs.

_Breathe._

He sucked in a deep, trembling breath.

_Good._

The coolness told him to release the breath, so he did. It kept telling him what to do, whispering words at him and sounding familiar but also not. Like the memory of it was just on the edges of his consciousness, just out of reach.

Cody didn’t know how long he listened to the cool voice and its whispered instructions, but it felt like forever. Long hours of endless, gentle instructions and soft praises. Slowly, a peaceful calm swept across him, settling like a blanket before it slowly lifted.

With its absence, it brought back the sounds of voices around him, armored feet falling against durasteel, engines humming through open air. Hands were still on him, at his elbow and on his back. There were two on his face, soothing and cool.

He sniffed against his runny nose. When had that started?

Cody took another breath, reaching up and scrubbing at his wet, gritty face. The movement dislodged the hands holding him. He breathed out finally, sucking in another breath immediately after.

His surroundings came back into focus as he opened his eyes. He was kneeling on the ground, and he honestly couldn’t figure out when that had happened. General Kenobi knelt before him, hands retracting to settle in his lap. Hunter hovered at his right and Rex on his left.

“Kote? _Vod_?” Rex whispered. He looked nearly scared out of his mind, eyebrows furrowed and eyes wide. “ _Tion’jate gar? Me’bana? Tion’meg nu’serim_?”

“Relax, Captain,” Hunter said, voice as gentle as Cody had ever heard it. “Give him some room to breathe a minute.”

Rex seemed to deflate and shrink back slightly.

“ _Ne’paravu takisit_ ,” he whispered.

Cody leaned slightly into his younger brother as he cleared his throat to speak.

“ _Bic vor’la_ ,” he croaked.

The breath he took next was deliberately deep and steadying, though immediately after, a tremor returned in his core. He ignored it and the way it threatened to bubble up into uncontrollable tears again.

He shifted himself to sit up straight, bracing his hands on his knees.

Cody turned his eyes on Rex.

“Rex,” he started, sounding awful and wrecked. “I’m so sorry.”

Rex reeled back, looking affronted.

“ _What_ -?”

Cody shook his head to stop him. He leaned slightly and knocked his elbow against Rex’s.

“I didn’t listen to you about Echo, and- and I was wrong. I’m _sorry_.”

Rex settled again, expression settling into a sad one of resignation.

“Next time,” Cody continued. “Make me listen. I don’t care if it sounds crazy.”

Rex’s expression steeled as he nodded with resolve.

Cody slumped into his brother again, suddenly tired as hell.

He was never going to doubt Rex about anything.

*

Rex came to him later, in the dark of night. He was nervous and fidgeting and clearly worked up about something.

Cody took him into his tent with zero hesitation and sat them down on his cot.

“I have something to tell you,” Rex whispered, eyes flickering to the tent flap.

“It’s about Fives…”


End file.
